Jury acquits Uresti co-defendant in bribery case

Lubbock businessman Vernon “Trey” Farthing III was found not guilty Friday in a bribery case.

Lubbock businessman Vernon “Trey” Farthing III was found not guilty Friday in a bribery case.

Photo: William Luther /Staff File Photo

Photo: William Luther /Staff File Photo

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Lubbock businessman Vernon “Trey” Farthing III was found not guilty Friday in a bribery case.

Lubbock businessman Vernon “Trey” Farthing III was found not guilty Friday in a bribery case.

Photo: William Luther /Staff File Photo

Jury acquits Uresti co-defendant in bribery case

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A San Antonio federal jury today acquitted a Lubbock businessman charged with paying bribes to ex-lawmaker Carlos Uresti and a West Texas county official to land a lucrative medical services contract at a Pecos prison.

Jurors took about 13 hours over two days to find Vernon “Trey” Farthing III, 45, not guilty of conspiracy to commit bribery and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Farthing could have faced up to five years in federal prison on the bribery conspiracy charge and up to 20 years on the money laundering charge if he had been convicted.

Uresti, the former San Antonio state senator who was indicted with Farthing, last month pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bribery rather than stand trial.

Prosecutors have said they will recommend that Uresti serve whatever sentence he gets concurrently with a 12-year prison term he received in an unrelated fraud case. Uresti, 55, did not testify at Farthing’s trial.

Jimmy Galindo, 54, who was county judge for Reeves County from 1995 to 2006, also pleaded guilty to the bribery charge and took the stand during Farthing’s trial.

Uresti and Galindo will be sentenced separately in January.

Uresti and Galindo “should not second-guess their guilty pleas in this case because Mr. Farthing was acquitted,” Senior U.S. District Judge David Ezra said after reading the 12-person jury’s decision. “The evidence, even though they were not on trial, was overwhelming as to their guilt.”

Galindo testified he persuaded Farthing to hire Uresti as a consultant at $10,000 a month so that Farthing’s company — Physicians Network Association — could get a contract in 2006 to provide medical services to prisoners at the Reeves County Correctional Center in Pecos.

Galindo said he advised Farthing to raise the price PNA would charge the county per inmate, per day, to pay for the consulting agreement. The increased price came out of the county’s end. Galindo negotiated the contract on behalf of the county.

Uresti served as a conduit to hide Galindo’s involvement, prosecutors alleged. The pair split more than $850,000 in kickbacks over the course of a 10-year contract that ended in 2016, prosecutors said. Galindo did not seek re-election in 2006 and ingratiated himself with Uresti to do business with him, they added.

Ezra surmised the jury did not believe Galindo’s testimony.

“Mr. Farthing, this should be a lesson to you,” Ezra said after the verdict. “You, at the very least, at the very least, involved yourself with some individuals here who were, to say the least, questionable.”

Farthing testified in his own defense Monday, saying he didn’t know the $10,000 a month consulting fee that PNA paid Uresti’s Turning Point Strategies was being split with Galindo.

“I didn’t have any idea what Uresti was doing with his money,” Farthing said. “I was aware that Galindo was working for him, but I had no idea that money allegedly was coming out of half of PNA’s check. He was doing all kinds of work for Uresti.”

Prosecutors Joseph Blackwell and Sean O’Connell said the case represented a violation of the public trust.

When a public official uses their position to solicit something of value for themselves or somebody else, Blackwell said at the beginning of the trial, “there is a corrupting influence over that official position.”

Gerald “Gerry” Goldstein, part of Farthing’s defense team, described Galindo as a “con artist” who sought to get out of other legal troubles by offering up the bribery scheme to federal investigators.

“It was a very hard-fought battle,” said attorney Cynthia Orr, who also represented Farthing. “We were very confident in our client’s innocence, and we’re so glad that the system worked.”

Blackwell expressed disappointment with the trial’s outcome but said it shouldn’t diminish the success of the case overall.

“A corrupt public official, Jimmy Galindo, was brought to justice due to the efforts of the FBI and the IRS,” Blackwell said. He also noted Uresti accepted responsibility for his criminal conduct.